Saturday in the Fourth Week of Lent
My heart is firmly fixed, O God, my heart is fixed;
I will sing and make melody.
Psalm 108:1
I awake to sunlight and birdsong and the comfort of being home.
Yesterday was a travel nightmare of delayed flights and missed connections and unhelpful personnel. And late at night, having been left to fend for myself at an airport that was not my final destination, I found myself traveling with another stranded soul, a stranger who turned out to be a neighbor, his destination half a mile from my house.
As I drove us homeward in a rented car, we bonded over hometown icons: the local high school, the music festival that has changed over the years, the new sports complex and arts center, when and where one can expect traffic jams. And then our kids, our parents, our stories of how we ended up here.
And all along the way my heart was thanking God who showed me once again the goodness and kindness of humanity and pulled generosity from me in response. So that by the time I dropped my companion off and finally opened my own front door, my step was lighter than it had been, the burden of frustration erased.
And this morning I continue to rejoice; the wilderness road ahead seem less daunting. Because though I am the one who offered a stranger a ride home, I have received the greater gift. And it is for this reason that I sing and make melody to God.
